By all means read

By all means read this excellent column by USC law professor Erwin Chemerinsky in yesterday's Los Angeles Times. After rehearsing the valid and increasingly well-known reasons for rejecting John Ashcroft's nomination for Attorney General on the merits, Chemerinsky proposes a broader, strategic rationale ... considering how many judicial nominations are likely to be coming down the pike, Senate Democrats should take this opportunity to make the ground rules clear: no hardcore right-wingers on the bench or as AG, period. No 'ifs', 'ands', or 'buts' about it.

Chemerinsky says the Dems should even be willing to filibuster the nomination if need be (and the need probably will be.)

That makes good sense both substantively and politically.

This December 8th New York Postcolumn (by none other than Talking Points himself!) makes the point more broadly. George W. needs to understand that there's a price to be paid for jimmying the lock and sneaking into the Oval Office by the back door. If Bush wants smooth sailing during the cabinet confirmation process, the Dems need to tell him: only moderates and mainstream conservatives get appointments to the important posts, period. This isn't payback; just a recognition of the reality of this election.

And finally, why hasn't more been said about Ashcroft's interview with the Southern Partisan magazine? I'd like to take heaps of credit for being the first to mention this story late on the evening of December 22nd. But, honestly, a few Nexis searches are all that's required to get all the details. But a quick search on the self-same Nexis reveals that only one article (that by Tom Edsall in the Washington Post) has even mentioned the Southern Partisan interview since Ashcroft's nomination (and even then only in passing).

Isn't this sort of a big deal? Is it really too much to ask that nominees for Attorney General not give interviews to crypto- (or not-so-crypto) racist publications like the Southern Partisan?